Lets start at the beginning of this trip and the most important announcement - I have finally become GOLD Qantas member! This has been a mission since coming back to Australia and one that eluded me... Now that I am GOLD member it means I can... erm... well... It doesn't mean anything, but mission completed! ;-)
I also flew in the new A380 plane (didn't notice much except the screens for watching movies were bigger). In Singapore the said new plane broke down and was delayed by 2hrs!! 2 hours of sitting on board with my fellow 400+ breathing, stinking, talking, occasionally crying (the babies), frustrated fellow human beings. Oh what fun!
Unusually, the pilot went into this detailed explanation why the plane was delayed. He said that the part that was broken was not really necessary part of the plane but due to protocol had to be repaired and that the engineers had difficulty getting to this unnecessary part. Now, hang on... There are useless parts we're carrying on new planes?? And the airlines whine so much about how much fuel costs and so we get charged so much for excess luggage, while they carry unnecessary parts... OK I forgot where this was going. Not to London anyway.
The pilot must have been British. Only they have this fascination of telling you causes of delays. I remember train delays in Britain and the driver saying it was "due to a fatality on the tracks - someone committing suicide on train tracks, people...".
Because of delays, in London I had to rush to my Istanbul flight and then when I arrived in Istanbul and saw the visa queue, I nearly cried. No way was I going to get my visa, line up again in the passport control queue, pick up my luggage, rush to the domestic airport and make my Ankara flight! In both queues I got ahead by asking people to let me through because of my onward connection. Though explaining it tens of times took almost as much time as standing in queues. No one objected and everyone I asked let me through, my faith in humanity restored. For a moment I contemplated asking for money from everyone who let me through, since I was begging anyway and apparently the 'foot in the door' technique works... But don't worry, I didn't! I even met a man who was failing to meet the same flight as me and from then on we were the move-ahead-team. He didn't have any luggage to pick up, so when we finally cleared passports he could run to the domestic airport and probably made the flight. I didn't.
I tried to get on the next flight (there is Istanbul-Ankara flight every hour) but they were all full. So I was put on standby and waited for the next available seat. This of course meant I couldn't go anywhere. I was stuck in a coffee shop, never knowing if someone else might be late this next flight and I can take their place... I finally got on board a plane after midnight.
Now, after a sleep and no jet lag (yet?) and in a remarkably good mood considering my recent delays, I am itching to go out and explore Ankara, but I made a deal with myself - no wasting of time (except for blog update ;-) ) until my free day in Istanbul. I have my Saudi clerics essay to finish for uni! So it's just me, the clerics and coffee to keep us all awake and happy...
Caffeine addicted teeth chattering, two finger flying/typing at 100km/hour HAPPY! :-/
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